Mid Harvest Update!

We're plugging right along with harvest here at Miller Farms! We've got 260 acres of cotton left, I'm guessing about half way through with soybeans, and there's no end in site for peanuts, lol.

Here's some of my favorite pictures of each crop this harvest season...

Peanut harvest has been ridiculously dusty because of the dry weather, but they have great yields! That's one reason its taking so long to pick them.

The cotton crop is also turning out really good! That's where I'm spending most of my time lately.

And then there's soybeans. We're so busy in the peanut and cotton field, we have to hire a guy to drive the combine on the weekends!

If you would like to learn more about any of these crops or what is happening in the photos, please click the "Farming 101" link at the top of my page!

Scenes from Harvest 2013

Since this year's harvest is winding down...I finally have time to post some pictures!

 

 We finished our corn harvest in September.

 

We started peanut harvest not long afterwards in October.

We started later than usual, which was close to our frost date (October 15th), so we decided to go ahead and invert (dig the peanuts up and flip them over) all the peanuts before we picked any.  

When the peanuts have had time to dry after being inverted, the frost doesn't hurt them, and they run through the combine just fine.

 We finished combining peanuts on October 24th.

 The same day we started picking cotton.

This was the cotton in our backyard.  

 I love taking pictures of this barn in our cotton. This year, I took it with an awesome setting on my phone, "dirty window." We have had a lot of folks come to take pictures in our cotton this year because it was so pretty. This barn is a popular spot.

Here, you can see the module truck starting to pick up some of our cotton modules in one of our fields. The module truck carries the modules to the cotton gin. We found out today that one of our modules was too big to fit on the truck. I just want to point out that it was not me that built it. "Ahem, Lance, cough cough".

 This was an odd sight in one of our fields. Lance parked his combine (which harvests grain) in our cotton field. We currently have around 150 acres of cotton left to harvest!

We are also harvesting soybeans.

When we have enough help in the cotton field, Lance sneaks off to the soybean field to pick a while.

It's a very slow go, but we're getting there!

 We were also videoed and interviewed for the "Outstanding Young Farm Family" contest we are currently competing in.

To read more about that, click here.

 

That's it for now! If you have any questions about what's happening in any of these pictures, check out my "Farming 101" page!



A Post Dedicated to Soybeans

Sadly, it is a very short post. One of these days I will actually make it to the soybean field more often. I managed to get 4 pictures this year, which is 4 more than usual. We don't grow many acres of soybeans, and the fields are usually the farthest from the house. We also don't have to tend to soybeans near as much as the cotton or peanuts. I never get any pictures of harvest either because I'm always in the cotton field when someone is harvesting our beans. So, because I feel bad for neglecting the soybeans, here is an entire 4-picture post dedicated to them.

 

These beans were about two weeks away from harvest when I took this picture.  As you can see, the morning glories were trying to creep their way into the beans.

 Smile for your close up.

 See that change in color? We ran out of seed right in the middle of this field and had to get a different variety to plant.

And last, but not least, naked soybeans! This is what they look like out of their shell! Maybe next year I'll get some harvest pictures. Yeah, I always say that, lol.

Crops Update

Thankfully, we've been getting plenty of rain around here lately, and it's made for some good lookin' crops! They better look good, if they know what's good for them. They have a baby to pay for this year!

 Here's our cotton. It's about waist high now.

 It's also starting to bloom. If you missed my post last year on the stages of cotton growth, click here!

 Here's our peanuts. The rows are close to "shaking hands" or meeting in the middle.

 They are also starting to bloom.

 Here is a very rare photograph of our soybeans.

 We tend to plant beans in our fields that don't lay very well, which is why we never grow that many. It also makes it harder to keep the weeds out. Lance said I was not allowed to post any weed pictures, lol.

 And last, but not least, our corn!

Usually this time of year it's twisted up and tasseling, but so far so good!

Now we're just keeping busy spraying the weeds, which is a never ending process. By the time we're done, it's time to start all over again!

I'd also like to send my condolences to the family of longtime friend and farm employee, Kenneth Estes, who lost his year long battle with cancer yesterday.

(Kenneth is in the dark blue).

RIP Kenneth! You will be missed!

Row Crop Field Day!

Last Tuesday, we held a row crop field day at our farm. It was a very popular event because we had over 50 people attend!

Everyone met at our farm around 9AM. There were local farmers/extension agents/seed and chemical salesmen and others associated with the ag industry in attendance.

Everyone piled in the back of pickup trucks and went on a crop tour!

They talked about weeds in our cotton patch....

Corn in our corn patch...

And white mold in our peanut patch. (I thought there had to be rain for things to mold!)

But I think what most people came for was lunch! We had Mackie Sides, who works for Bayer Crop Science, cook steak sandwiches for everyone. They were so good. He has cooked for us before, and if he would work for free, I'd hire him to be my personal chef.

We pulled out our best trailer, and tada! Instant picnic.

After lunch, our County Extension Agent, Dan Porch, demonstrated how to put out a new type of fire ant killer around our chicken house. He used a spreader behind his four wheeler to apply it. We're supposed to only have to use it every six months, so hopefully it will cut down on our fire ant problem!

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It's getting closer to harvest time, so I thought I'd share some crop photos!

Here is some of the cotton around our house. The bolls have begun to pop open because it has been so dry. I think our house has some kind of vortex around it because it seems to rain everywhere else but here. When cotton is about 50% open that means it's time to defoliate (spray a chemical on the cotton to make it shed its leaves). This will probably be the first cotton we defoliate since it is popping open so early. The rest of the fields aren't this bad.

I'm very proud of myself for actually making it to the soybean field this year. There aren't any soybeans near our house, so I tend to neglect them. I should have kept neglecting them because right after I took this picture, my camera completely stopped working. That's really starting to affect my blogging!

I had to take this photo of the peanuts with Lance's camera, which will have to do until I fix mine or get a new one. We finally got our first rain in about three weeks yesterday, so our peanuts have perked up quite a bit!

Speaking of peanuts...if any of you locals would like to buy any peanuts, we are now taking pre-orders! They will be ready in about 2-3 weeks. We are selling a 20-25lb. bag for $20. We planted 2 acres, that are good for parching and boiling, just for selling to the public. Let me know!